1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to improvements in the structure of a protector used for protecting a bundle of many strands such as electric wires, wire harnesses or optical fiber cables. This invention relates also to improvements in the structure of a locking mechanism provide on two hinge-connected members such as those of a strands protector so as to secure the two members in an assembled state when one of the two members is superposed on the mating member by rotating the fomer relative to the latter around the hinge.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A variety of kinds of electric equipment are now incorporated in an automobile, and an enormous number of strands such as electric wires are used for establishing wiring connections required for such electric equipment. The electric wires are suitably bundled and housed in a protector so that they can be regularly arranged without being entangled and, after the step of wiring, they can be protected against damage which leads to disabling the associated electric equipment. Such a protector is frequently shaped into a three-dimensionally bent configuration depending on the location or environment where it is installed.
A prior art protector of the kind described above is commonly composed of a housing in the form of a U-shaped channel member for receiving strands therein and a cover member covering the opening of the housing. The cover member is connected by a hinge to the housing, and the housing and the cover member are assembled and secured together by engagement of a plurality of female and male locking means. When such a protector has a three-dimensionally bent configuration, the female locking means must be sized to be larger than the male locking means, because the cover member is superposed on the housing by rotating it around the hinge. Therefore, the prior art protector has been defective in that play is inevitably formed between the female and male locking means after the cover member is assembled with the housing, and the holding strength of the locking mechanism decreases with the result that the cover member tends to be disengaged from the housing.
The housing and the cover member constituting the protector of this kind are integrally formed by molding a synthetic resin in a metal mold. However, due to the three-dimentional configuration of the protector, a metal mold having a correspondingly larger size has been required, and the metal mold had to be opened by a distance two times as large as the height of the housing for the withdrawal of the molded protector from the mold.
The locking mechanism provided on the protector having such a three-dimensionally bent configuration will now be described. As the male locking means, a plurality of locking arms each having a projection at its free end are erected on the cover member, and, as the female locking means, a plurality of arch-shaped arm-engaging receptacles are provided on the housing at positions corresponding to the locking arms respectively. In the prior art protector having such locking arms and arm-engaging receptacles, the projection of each locking arm must be rectilinearly inserted into the central hole of the corresponding arm-engaging receptacle, and the positioning of the cover member connected to the housing by the hinge of small thickness is difficult, resulting in low efficiency of positioning the cover member relative to the housing. Further, because an extra load may be imparted to the hinge having a low mechanical strength, the hinge may not be able to withstand such an extra load.